Bright yet Dark
by ASBusinessMagnet
Summary: A story based on the published art of the mysterious girl with the flashlight from the Homestuck adventure game. Follow her and her three friends as they set off to explore a completely unknown world and strive to develop a deeper relationship, as they finally break away from the wonderful yet horrible future.
1. Prologue 1

_Author's idiotisms: Headcanon explanations pre-story: no Sburb, the story is about human explorers on Alternia, the flashlight is the main characteristic of the mystery girl (henceforth Flashlight Girl)._

* * *

A flashlight briefly flashed through the empty streets of Alternia. The scene in an otherwise dull environment was slightly exciting. It was as if a new sun had shone in the place. But it was a sun no one else had ever seen. Trolls had grown accustomed to living in the dark, and as such, if any troll was there, he would regard the brief spark of light as obscene and alien.

And alien it was, as a shadow, knowing the direction from the brief flash, confidently walked across the street. The shadow didn't appear to have any horns, strangely. Of course, the scene would once again be strange only to trolls.

The shadow then flashed her flashlight again, though this time for a longer time. From the reflecting light, you could now easily tell that she was, in fact, a pale-skinned girl, with a gray coat and a black skirt. Now, one could definitely tell she was not a native of the land, but rather an explorer from a distant planet.

With that, one could easily draw a conclusion that she was, in fact, not alone. One doesn't just embark on a distant journey like this without any sort of company. Some relationships and stereoscopic observations were practically key to this girl's mission. The speculations were quickly confirmed, as the girl, still holding her flashlight with one hand, pulled out a Walkie-Talkie, used for communication when no global services were available, and spoke something to her friends.

Her friends - there were three of them, in fact - were presumably disinterested. They gave much less thought to the alien planet, instead wondering when a party in space will happen. It was only this girl who cared to figure out precisely what Alternia is.

At this point, you might be wondering many things. Who is this girl? Who are her friends? Why and how did they get to Alternia? Obviously, these questions won't be answered immediately, much like much of the trivia about Alternia. Narration, it should be mentioned at this point, is different from observation. Observation leads to figuring out facts one by one and only then piecing them to a coherent story, and narration tells the story in digested chunks, so it is easier to build an entire world out of it.

And as such, the story must inevitably call for a prologue. It will try to be brief, but it has to be sufficient so you know who the mysterious girl with the flashlight is and where she stands in her own society.

* * *

Kate Parker was, to say the least, completely disinterested with her life.

For a girl her age, she was quite knowledgeable. Her room added on to this: her bookcases were full of books, there were many tables with famous experiments of physics reproduced, and when she opened her computer, the websites she visited, like Wikipedia and Answers. com, were so much unlike the interests of her friends, which were to continuously browse Tumblr and Facebook in search of friends and the purpose of life without acutely understanding what life consists of.

As such, she had much difficulty talking to her friends. She didn't have that many friends over the Internet - only three, as emphasized by her Tumblr follower count and Pesterchum contact count, easily countable - one, two, three - and out of all of them she felt like an outcast.

Thus, not giving much thought to this, she switched off both her computer and her phone and turned to her backyard, where she was completing her newest experiment: a personal spaceship.

Space travel always fascinated humans. While the first epoch of space travel, lasting from 1957 to 1972, only was fueled by a greater competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the second epoch, officially beginning with a revisit of the moon in 2023, was much more friendlier, with spaceships becoming open-source technology for everyone to create, and instead of countries, individuals competed.

Kate Parker, the hero of our story, was no exception.

For a girl her age, her interest combination seemed a little strange. Other girls her age were completely corrupted by anime and other fandoms, but Kate seemed like she was born in the golden epoch of 1990s. After the time, all the people born were immediately corrupted by the fandoms, but before this time, women were too afraid to speak up, and so this epoch best matched Kate's interests.

As she pondered the very last thoughts, and felt very distantly connected to the humanity, she screwed in the last wires of the spaceship, almost readying it for flight, were it not for one major setback:

She completely lacked fuel.

Thus, she plugged the spaceship into a hydrogen generator and returned to the computer to finally talk to her friends about completely irrelevant stuff. On Pesterchum, only one other friend was online and so it was the immediate choice of who Kate would pester.

- severedSovereign [SS] began pestering knightlySoldier [KS] -

SS: Well, and what would you be up to?  
KS: oh noooooooooo  
KS: were SO not havin this conversation alright  
SS: Why not?  
KS: ur just gonna introduce more smart bull shit 2 me  
KS: getit introduce  
KS: thats a fairly smart word  
SS: And once again, I am reminded that I am from the wrong decade.  
KS: er  
KS: sorry  
KS: i totes accept people of all intelligences  
SS: Levels of intelligence.  
KS: NO  
KS: i mean  
KS: whatever  
KS: what do u want  
SS: The relationship between us two and my other two friends is always so dysfunctional.  
KS: and  
KS: who are those other 2  
KS: i kno u keep mentionin those other 2 but how do i kno  
KS: their not ur imaginary friends  
SS: I am pretty confident of such things.  
SS: At any rate, I thought we four should do something together.  
KS: we 4  
KS: its not we 4  
KS: its we 2 an the other 2  
SS: Well, then it is about time I introduced you to those other 2.  
KS: NO  
KS: i already follow like 9000 or so pplz on tumblr  
SS: But you never talk to them?  
KS: i so do  
SS: Besides me, do you keep any stable relationships with anyone?  
KS: well  
KS: u misunderstand  
KS: 4 a smartypants u still dont understand that  
KS: tumblr is a single organism  
KS: a hive mind  
SS: Hmm.  
SS: But that didn't answer my question.  
KS: lessee  
KS: theres this guy w/ whom i once did an art collab yesterday  
KS: theres this girl w/ whom i rped 3 days ago  
SS: You can stop now.  
SS: I already see that your scope is only days long.  
KS: an what r u goin 2 tell me now  
KS: arms race of US an USSR  
SS: Nah, no historical metaphors this time.  
SS: Just so I understand.  
SS: I'm your only definite contact on Pesterchum, right?  
KS: no  
KS: ur still gettin it wrong  
KS: jus lemme see theres like 100 contacts  
KS: bu somma those r 1 day guys/girls so imma delete those  
SS: Waiting.

While Kate was waiting for a response, she picked up her Rubik's Revenge, scrambled it and began solving it. However, about ten minutes into peaceful solving, her friend finally spoke up again.

KS: !  
KS: omg  
KS: omg omg omg ur rite  
KS: jus when i think ur full of bullshit ur rite  
KS: ur the only one i remember from maybs  
KS: a month ago  
SS: Well, then I suppose it is time I introduced you to the others.

And thus, Kate, as little as she had contact with people on the Internet, was confident that she wasn't a complete outcast of the system after all.


	2. Prologue 2

_Author's idiotisms: Let me guess: only one person favorited/followed the story because it isn't post-Sburb, right?_

_Also, the chumhandles of the four kids are obviously KK, KS, SK and SS because **K**ick**S**tarter. Duh. (Also, the "like-letters are girls, different letters are guys" rule applies here.)_

* * *

- severedSovereign [SS] began pestering sustainedKeeper [SK] -

SK: what now  
SS: Oh, just doing whatever I'm usually doing.  
SK: but what ur doing always has a purpose  
SK: ur INTELLIGENT rite  
SS: Not necessarily.  
SS: Of course, this conversation has a point, which we'll get to in a moment, but sometimes I do silly things.  
SK: like  
SS: Talking with you three, most of the time.  
SS: I already know that the entire Tumblr is pretty much doomed to remain in its larval state, so why am I talking to you?  
SK: us 3  
SK: but theres only me 1 rite  
SS: _That's the point of the conversation.  
_SS: I want to introduce you to the other two.  
SK: bu theres no way rite  
SK: i mean  
SK: i have loads of followers on tumblr who drop asks  
SK: maybs  
SK: 200  
SS: And they drop asks about a single post, right?  
SK: nah we talk bout  
SK: eh  
SS: While you look through, I'm just going to tell you that the chumhandles of the two people are knightlySoldier and kitchenKeymaker.

- severedSovereign [SS] ceased pestering sustainedKeeper [SK] -

- sustainedKeeper [SK] began pestering severedSovereign [SS] -

SK: wtf  
SK: so that was ur point  
SK: to intoduce me to more pplz  
SK: when im alreddy talkin to my 215 followers  
SK: bout thins like anime an superwholock an harry potter an nightvale  
SK: speakin of nightvale  
SK: i wonder what ep 693 will be  
SK: also speakin of nightvale  
SK: where da fuck is the mayor  
SS: You know I don't listen to your Japanese radio shows, right?  
SK: well u should  
SK: also nightvales english  
SK: bu u wont get it ever  
SK: cos ur into science n shit  
SK: what is science like  
SK: u mean aperture science rite  
SK: w/ its  
SK: actually i dont remember decades old games at all  
SK: so maybs u w/ ur SUPERIOR HISTORY can fill me in

- severedSovereign [SS] blocked sustainedKeeper [SK] -

_How did I hook up with these guys anyway?_ Kate wondered as she clicked through Pesterchum, blocking all three of her contacts. Sighing, she switched off her computer and went to the backyard to see how her spaceship was fueled. It must have been reflexes, though: even if the spaceship WAS fully fueled, she would still go nowhere alone, especially since she had no idea where she was going. She'd just explore space for a while before landing on an alien planet.

And thus, Kate began daydreaming about the alien planet. How its green tentacled horned men would greet her with a great sense of respect for not killing them immediately upon arrival. How the inconsistent shapes of the buildings would remind her she is home every time, rather than the dull grayscale city environment that spread across all of America and immediately spoke "guess what; in the future we don't speak of home, we only speak of the great United City of America" and immediately made Kate think of brighter times.

Sure, space travel wasn't as developed - or remembered - during the time, but society wasn't rotten from the inside. It was...

What was society like at the time?

But before Kate could think of anything, she was confronted by her father. "Daughter, I think you would feel better if you actually went outside."

"Yes, and what would I see outside? The same boring drab environment every time?" Kate responded, disgusted.

"Not necessarily. You could go to the cinema and see a movie."

"Yeah, but you see: discussing the movie and its feelings with my Internet friends will only bring me closer to them and their rotten society."

"Who did ever say Tumblr is rotten? Anyway. You're overreacting too much. You should really go." Her father spoke and Kate silently nodded.

But just as then, the holographic screen popped up right in front of their face and a cheery generated voice spoke up. "It looks like you two decided to see a movie. Do any of these choices satisfy you?"

Kate's father, being a very strong case of nineties kids, silently wondered: "This is what our society has come down to." and thus stood in awe, while Kate scrolled through the movie list, immediately seeing many movies her three friends always talked about. Though, Kate knew nothing about the plots of the movies, due to a very strict "no spoiler policy" established by the Tumblr community. Whenever anyone told her "did you see (movie name)", she would reply negatively, and not a single detail about the movie was ever leaked.

This is also the reason Kate's friends preferred Tumblr over instant messaging: they could instantly block tags of movies/shows they hadn't seen/don't care about (a feature implemented by Tumblr in 2019, but existing unofficially before then), and as such they were safe, while on instant messaging the safety of spoilers was never guaranteed.

At any rate, Kate picked a movie and the room immediately darkened. As it turned out, in the future "go to the cinema" was just a phrase: the last cinema in America was disestablished eleven years ago, followed by the last television and radio channel, and all news and shows were delivered on demand directly to people's homes.

From the first minutes, Kate immediately noticed that the movie was set in 2015. _At least something to step back to the past_, she thought as she sat down with her father and watched the movie.

Though, while she watched, she didn't notice how her Pesterchum was reacting again.

- cnightlySoldier [CS] began pestering severedSovereign [SS] -

CS: haha stupid human girl w/ a stupid history fetish  
CS: i circumvented ur stupid block  
CS: to tell you  
CS: what da hell  
CS: why wold u give me those stupid contacts  
CS: really now  
CS: this is ur deep revenge  
CS: o i forgot  
CS: u dont know of revenge  
CS: becos ur a saint and woldnt do anythin bad to any1  
CS: anyway  
CS: what da hell  
CS: says ur watchin a movie  
CS: well looks like finally ur defenses r breached n u can become 1 of us  
CS: 1 of The Great Expanse of Tumblr  
CS: witch is also 1 bu irrelevant  
CS: huh  
CS: says the movie is set in 2015  
CS: maybe 2015 can call an tell me where da fuck nightvale mayor disappearified  
CS: brb seein if i watched it  
CS: i did  
CS: bu then id remember it  
CS: oh whatever lemme watch togetha w/ u  
CS: hellooooooo?  
CS: ah whatevas

- cnightlySoldier [CS] ceased pestering severedSovereign [SS] -


	3. Prologue 3

_Author's idiotisms: I think you'll find it funny when I tell you that this chapter (minus my author's note) is exactly 999 words and then you read the chapter._

* * *

- severedSovereign [SS] began pestering knightlySoldier [KS] -

SS: Listen.  
SS: I didn't want to insult you or anything.  
SS: It's just that I was enjoying my time in the proverbial cinema.  
KS: an ur ready 2 talk bout the movie  
SS: Actually, no.  
SS: You did mention that that way I'd become one of "The Great Expanse of Tumblr".  
KS: bu common  
KS: ur lick the only of billions of tumblr users hoo isent like us  
SS: Maybe I'm just fascinated by other interests.  
KS: omg  
KS: this is SO not happenin  
KS: even tho it happened loads of times this month  
KS: bu i wont let it happen again  
SS: Last time I remember, never once during our entire friendship I brought up history.  
KS: p sure u did  
KS: lemme check out the logs

- knightlySoldier [KS] ceased pestering severedSovereign [SS] -

Kate sighed once again and switched off her computer.

At this point, she had no idea what was wrong with her friends. She understood the basics: there was a website called Tumblr, all her friends were a part of it and often they seemed to act as if they were a single person. But at this point, many questions appeared. If her friends were separated from Tumblr, what would they go through? Would they eventually become just as everyone was before Tumblr was even a thing?

Slightly interested, she entered "separation from Tumblr" into Google. As it turns out, scientists also wondered the same thing, but couldn't gather test subjects because no one wanted to be deliberately separated from Tumblr. As such, experiments produced wildly varied results from which no one could draw a conclusion.

Thus, Kate's only choice would be to run a similar experiment herself with the spaceship, in addition to all the dandy exploration.

- knightlySoldier [KS] began pestering severedSovereign [SS] -

Kate sighed once again and looked at what the friend had to write.

KS: kay found it  
KS: geez this thin musta be from 4eva ago  
KS: all the way fro the distant year o 2037  
KS: anyway  
KS: SS: You remind me a lot of...  
KS: SS: North Korea.  
KS: SS: A joke of a country.  
KS: KS: whats north korea?  
KS: SS: Oh!  
KS: SS: Thanks for asking.  
KS: SS: Well, the story starts with World War II, when Japan had Korea taken over.  
KS: KS: oh hell yeah!  
KS: KS: japan  
KS: KS: land of the animes  
KS: SS: Unfortunately, back in the day Japan had no animes made.  
KS: SS: Remember, I'm talking about the distant year of 1945.  
KS: haha  
KS: distant year  
SS: Distant year.  
SS: Yes, indeed our definitions of "distant year" differ.  
SS: Thanks for making it obvious to me.  
KS: wen i was still usin punctuation  
KS: an mostly correct words  
KS: hoo needs spellin anywayz  
KS: school  
KS: fuck school  
KS: fandoms teach WAY mo than school  
SS: Oh yeah?  
SS: Did fandoms teach you to read?  
KS: uh  
KS: fandoms teach WAY mo importan thins  
KS: lemme remember  
KS: superwholock tout me that everone is unique  
KS: or somethin  
KS: nightvale tout me that  
KS: nightvale reely just scared da livin hell outta me

Not reading anymore, Kate minimized the window and picked up the fourth and final of her friends.

- severedSovereign [SS] began pestering kitchenKeymaker [KK] -

SS: Hello.  
KK: oh sup  
KK: heard u gave my chumhandle 2 ur friends  
KK: thanks  
SS: My pleasure.  
KK: now i got 2 more tumblr followers  
SS: Er...  
SS: That's all you care about?  
SS: Tumblr followers?  
KK: y  
KK: hoo DOSENT care bout tumblr followers  
KK: all the time i hear  
KK: "oh shit i lost a follower im depressed now"  
KK: an they lose anotter follower  
KK: its a vicious cycle  
KK: the only way to break o it is to become tumblr famous  
SS: Tumblr-famous?  
SS: Last I heard, everyone on Tumblr was one and the same.  
KK: no u donnunnerstand  
KK: tumblr famous  
KK: o everone wishes to bcome tumblr famous  
KK: havin majority o tumblr follo u  
KK: millions of people  
KK: so u can post whateva u want an everone will think  
KK: o that guys famous  
KK: thats how the term came to be  
KK: tumblr  
KK: the name o the website  
KK: and famous  
KK: well known  
KK: see i did a smar thin r u happy  
SS: Let's say I am brightly enlightened.  
SS: Not ALL of hope is lost.  
SS: Maybe 99.999999% percent of hope is lost.  
SS: But 99.999999% is not 100%.  
KK: 99999999999999999999999999999999999999  
KK: can u skip the 9s and get to ur point  
SS: Alright.  
SS: The plan is:  
SS: I'm going to escape this doomed planet and go on an adventure.  
SS: But I don't want to do it alone.  
SS: Space is scary.  
SS: I'm taking friends with me.  
SS: You and those 2 followers you got, just to be precise.  
KK: er  
KK: okay  
KK: where do we meet  
SS: My backyard.  
SS: Hopefully the spaceship won't take too long to charge, and once you get here by the plane or whatever, it will be charged and we will be ready.  
KK: yes bu  
KK: where do u live  
SS: Once upon a time the place where I live used to be called Atlanta, Georgia.  
SS: So... Google that.  
KK: o ur in the grand city constellation  
KK: im in the more distant sburbs  
KK: bu kay we can meet  
KK: in fact airport everthin is horrible so imma book tickets now  
SS: Thanks and see you soon.  
SS: And before you board the plane, tell your 2 newfound followers about it.  
KK: sure thin

- severedSovereign [SS] ceased pestering kitchenKeymaker [KK] -

_At least KK isn't THAT corrupted by fandoms_, Kate thought, finally shut off everything except the charging, got undressed and got into her bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.


	4. Prologue 4

A young lady stands in her bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, 2041, is a big day for her, seeing as she and her three friends are preparing to embark on an adventure of a lifetime. Before anything, though, we must know one thing:

What is this young lady's name?

Kate wasn't feeling too well. Not only did her period apparently start overnight, but now, when she woke up, she kept hearing this sickening voice of the otherworldly narrator. Her life wasn't narrated, she believed and was fairly confident of it, but the truth was that in fact, there were now two different people narrating her life.

Your name is KATE. _Oh my god, shut up! Just shut up! I already know my name, thank you._ Kate thought, but that did nothing to ease the pains of everything that was surrounding her, up to and including school- oh, today's a Saturday. Slightly relieved, Kate went to the kitchen and waited for her smart house to deliver breakfast, but only heard the narrator again.

As was previously mentioned, today is a BIG DAY for you, seeing as YOU and your THREE FRIENDS today in the DISTANT FUTURE- _It's not the "distant future", it's the freakin' present. Now, please shut up, once again._ Sure, it was a bit hard to believe that, what with technology surrounding you every second of your life, but yes. The residents of 2041 believed they were in the present, as did the residents of every single year before then and after then.

Listen. At this point, Kate is already dealing with a narrator ruining her life. The story should better move on to some other kid.

* * *

Robert Canterbury was wondering about almost nothing.

Like the tens of millions of sheep on Tumblr, he was taught by the constantly mutating yet eternal community to just have everything delivered to him and laugh when his friends did. In fact, he was browsing Tumblr on his smartphone at this very moment, still being stuck in the shared memory of thirty years past and being indifferent to the fact that he had just flown from what was once California (now named the West Coast Nation) to the other side of the continent to meet his _slightly_ different Internet friend.

As he looked around, two more people appeared. One boy and one girl, all around the same age. Being parts of a hivemind and having begun following each other on Tumblr, they all were able to simultaneously think about how long ago there were the nineties kids, then the noughties kids, then the tens kids and finally the group they belonged to, the twenties kids. Back when the nineties kids were the only group using Tumblr, because what would become the noughties kids were still known as "12.9 year olds", they had created their own very distinct personality based on what was hip and cool at the time.

As the decades passed, the differences between the nineties kids and the new group began to appear. While the nineties kids were more whimsical and random, the noughties kids were more in awe because they thought that they had taken a flight to the future, what with the unending fall of Back to the Future references beginning with 2015.

And just as that moment, Robert took a painful launch back to the present day as Kate's front door slammed right in front of him, and Kate, originally more angry with the second narrator, became more distraught as the first thing she ever did to her Internet friends in real life was hit him with a door.

"Man, you okay?" the stranger girl asked Robert.

"This severedSovereign girl is really pissed off," Robert answered in the same way everyone on Tumblr seemed to talk now.

"Kate Parker. I am Kate Parker." The resident of the house objected, but then everyone noticed that at the time, she was taking a flashlight with herself to the spaceship, as part of a stereotypical detective.

"Flashlight Girl." The other boy had decided, and the two arrivees agreed on it. Soon enough, pictures of this strange person from a land before the Internet had flown across all Tumblr, with fanart and cheap imitations of the girl.

Meanwhile, when Kate was done packing her own stuff, she turned back to the front door and asked: "Are you going?"

"We're going somewhere?" one of the strangers asked.

"Yes, that's why I brought you here."

"Oh really?" another one asked. It wasn't really relevant, since all of them had learned to think as one being.

"Yes, _really._ Now get going." Kate reported and the other kids had followed, but then three more people appeared:

The strangers' guardians.

They didn't really say anything, though, being part of the first Tumblr-enabled generation, and instead found Kate's father in her house, as if to get their own group together to counter the leaving group of Kate and co.

They had looked out the window, where they finally saw Kate's spaceship fully charged, four people walking into it, one of them switching buttons and the spaceship taking off, burning the lawn. They were still too busy reuniting, and since no one cared to extinguish the newly created fire, the computerized house had to do it itself.

"Man, no one pities the computerized house," Kate's father finally said. "It always gets to do the hard stuff for us."

"I'm just doing what I was designed to do." The house responded and the four adults pondered the great words, as the story was finally taking off from Earth itself and approaching whatever alien planet was to be encountered first.


End file.
